Using sed to insert file content

Question

I'm trying to insert a file content before a given pattern

Here is my code:

sed -i "" "/pattern/ {
i\\ 
r $scriptPath/adapters/default/permissions.xml"
}" "$manifestFile"

It adds the path instead of the content of the file.

Any ideas ?

Todd A. Jacobs · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-28T14:56:12.827

20

In order to insert text before a pattern, you need to swap the pattern space into the hold space before reading in the file. For example:

sed "/pattern/ {
         h
         r $scriptPath/adapters/default/permissions.xml
         g
         N
     }" "$manifestFile"

edited Jun 28 '12 at 14:56

answered Jun 28 '12 at 14:19

Todd A. Jacobs

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The script has to be double quoted, otherwise $scriptPath won't be expanded. Could you please explain why is N needed at the end? – hipe Jun 28 '12 at 15:53
@hipe The r command only queues the read for insertion into the output stream. It doesn't actually read anything until the end of the cycle or when the next line is read. Without N the file wouldn't be inserted until after the pattern space was printed, making it function as an append rather than an insert. It's *very* non-intuitive. – Todd A. Jacobs Jun 28 '12 at 16:07
2

Seems sed is very picky with the 'r' command. According to http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/linux_tool_guides/the_sed_faq/sedfaq5_008.html: "Any additional characters before or after the filename are interpreted as part of the filename." I tried `r someFile.txt # insert content of ...` and it failed silently. – vscharf Apr 15 '14 at 13:42
3

This works fine as long as `pattern` is _not_ on the last line. – don_crissti Mar 30 '15 at 18:01
Hi, Todd and @vscharf, I found "h" & "g" are ommitable. I wrote this one-liner( https://stackoverflow.com/a/56182135/26736 ). Thanks ! – benok May 17 '19 at 08:26

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 28 '12 at 11:02

5

Just remove i\\.

Example:

$ cat 1.txt
abc
pattern
def

$ echo hello > 2.txt

$ sed -i '/pattern/r 2.txt' 1.txt

$ cat 1.txt
abc
pattern
hello
def

answered Jun 28 '12 at 11:02

Igor Chubin

61,765
13
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144

3

It inserts after the pattern. How to insert the content before it ? – ridan Jun 28 '12 at 11:09

benok · Answer 3 · 2019-05-17T08:29:35.420

3

I tried Todd's answer and it works great,

but I found "h" & "g" commands are ommitable.

Thanks to this faq (found from @vscharf's comments), Todd's answer can be this one liner.

sed -i -e "/pattern/ {r $file" -e 'N}' $manifestFile

Edit: If you need here-doc version, please check this.

edited May 17 '19 at 08:29

answered May 17 '19 at 08:02

benok

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1
6
21

2

this doesn't work if the match is on the last line or if consecutive lines should match... – Sundeep Apr 04 '20 at 08:26

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 28 '12 at 11:27

I got something like this using awk. Looks ugly but did the trick in my test:

command:

cat test.txt | awk '
/pattern/ {
    line = $0;
    while ((getline < "insert.txt") > 0) {print};
    print line;
    next
}
{print}'

test.txt:

$ cat test.txt
some stuff
pattern
some other stuff

insert.txt:

$ cat insert.txt
this is inserted file
this is inserted file

output:

some stuff
this is inserted file
this is inserted file
pattern
some other stuff

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 11 '15 at 05:04

0

CodeGnome's solution don't work, if the pattern is on the last line.. So I used 3 commands.

sed -i '/pattern/ i\
        INSERTION_MARKER
        ' $manifestFile
sed -i '/INSERTION_MARKER/r $scriptPath/adapters/default/permissions.xml' $manifestFile
sed -i 's/INSERTION_MARKER//' $manifestFile

answered Jun 11 '15 at 05:04

Sinhyeok

46
4

i found it most straightforward to use vim for this: `vim "$fileToEdit" <<< ':$-1 r'"$fileToInsert"$'\n:wq'` – Sam May 08 '19 at 14:32

Using sed to insert file content

5 Answers5

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